Help! Need some Advices

[lokerice]

Hi forum. I've just taken the GRE general exam and screwd up (in short..). I am an international student and wanted to apply to Earth science PhD programs for the following school:

1. MIT

2. Columbia

3. Dartmouth

4. UCSD

5. Texas at Austin

6. Chicago

7. U Maine

8. UCSC maybe? not sure whether it wll be worthwhile to apply to two california uni with close ranking - guess if one dun like me, the other will think the same anyway....

I did "okay" in my verbal 560, but ran out of time and panic in my Quan and got 670. Which is not on....I guess. Do you guys think I should retake? But I am really scared about the Writting part. I got lucky and got the question I prepared for this time, not sure I will be next time - that's the biggest worry.

Most of the uni have deadlines in first two weeks in Jan, Do you think there will be enough time if I retake it in Dec 2? The ETS website said they can send the score within 10-15 days?! But I heard mail can be a complete nightmare in USA......

Thank you for your kind reply. I am really lost .....

Edited November 2, 2010 by lokerice

[lokerice]

Another urgent question, hope u guys can help: I heard that you can only retake the GRE test once every month - but i seems to get an "illusion" that people took their retakes e.g. one week after !!! So, which is true? If I took the exam on 2nd Nov, when am I allow to take it again?

[db2290]

ok, in response to your two questions.

1) if you have time (and you do if you are aiming for Jan deadlines), I would retake. I think for a hard science applicant will prob need a higher quant score (I'm not sure what a competitive applicant would have for this field but certainly for your top university choices this would be very high if not 800).

2) You can retake once every calender month, as opposed to once every 30 days. So you could technically do it on Oct 31st and 1st November if necessary.

[Tall Chai Latte]

Another urgent question, hope u guys can help: I heard that you can only retake the GRE test once every month - but i seems to get an "illusion" that people took their retakes e.g. one week after !!! So, which is true? If I took the exam on 2nd Nov, when am I allow to take it again?

If I'm not mistaken, I believe taking the test once a month is actually once every calendar month. Say if you register to take the GRE on the last week of November, you can register for another test when December comes. I have never done it myself, just double check with ETS guidelines.

[lokerice]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe taking the test once a month is actually once every calendar month. Say if you register to take the GRE on the last week of November, you can register for another test when December comes. I have never done it myself, just double check with ETS guidelines.

Hey! Thanks very much for you guys advices. I got really upset after the exam - since I got pretty high grades when I did my practise tests +700 V and +750Q. When the results came out I was more than shocked...guess I did too much "paper" practise and not used to the CAT system. Also did my exam at 8:30 am in the morning - so I woke up at abt 4:00 am for some last minutes revision! Bad strategy I guess. So do you guys think I will be able to fit in my deadlines if I take it on 1 Dec then (which is the earliest date I can take, since I took one exam already in Nov...?)

One last question, will taking retake hurt my application for the Ivy schools (MIT, Columbia)? Does any body know whether they will take the best score out of the two or what?

Many thanks

Edited November 2, 2010 by lokerice

[Kitkat]

Hi forum. I've just taken the GRE general exam and screwd up (in short..). I am an international student and wanted to apply to Earth science PhD programs for the following school:

1. MIT

2. Columbia

3. Dartmouth

4. UCSD

5. Texas at Austin

6. Chicago

7. U Maine

8. UCSC maybe? not sure whether it wll be worthwhile to apply to two california uni with close ranking - guess if one dun like me, the other will think the same anyway....

I did "okay" in my verbal 560, but ran out of time and panic in my Quan and got 670. Which is not on....I guess. Do you guys think I should retake? But I am really scared about the Writting part. I got lucky and got the question I prepared for this time, not sure I will be next time - that's the biggest worry.

Most of the uni have deadlines in first two weeks in Jan, Do you think there will be enough time if I retake it in Dec 2? The ETS website said they can send the score within 10-15 days?! But I heard mail can be a complete nightmare in USA......

Thank you for your kind reply. I am really lost .....

I am in a similar situation as you. I am also applying to earth science Ph.D. programs. I know that for at least some of those schools (ie Columbia, and Chicago, probably MIT) will probably want higher scores then that. I know that Chicago says that they would like to see top 15% of both the Quant and Verbal, although their acceptance rates seem to say that they are a bit flexable about that on the verbal section, but in order to to that I think you need to have strong aspects in other parts of your applications. I would say take it again (I am going to be as well to get my quant up), but do you think you could take it sooner? Are you also applying for funding? I know some of those schools have earlier deadlines for the funding applications.....

[DrFaustus666]

On the question of "will a retake hurt my application?" every university, often even individual departments within the same university, has different policies.

Some use the highest, some average the scores, etc. You'll have to ask each individual school what their policy is.

ETS's official policy is that any method is OK as long as the university uses the same method for all applicants. The bad news is that the only thing that's SURE is: a top-notch score the first time is your best bet

[waddle]

Hi forum. I've just taken the GRE general exam and screwd up (in short..). I am an international student and wanted to apply to Earth science PhD programs for the following school:

1. MIT

2. Columbia

3. Dartmouth

4. UCSD

5. Texas at Austin

6. Chicago

7. U Maine

8. UCSC maybe? not sure whether it wll be worthwhile to apply to two california uni with close ranking - guess if one dun like me, the other will think the same anyway....

I did "okay" in my verbal 560, but ran out of time and panic in my Quan and got 670. Which is not on....I guess. Do you guys think I should retake? But I am really scared about the Writting part. I got lucky and got the question I prepared for this time, not sure I will be next time - that's the biggest worry.

Most of the uni have deadlines in first two weeks in Jan, Do you think there will be enough time if I retake it in Dec 2? The ETS website said they can send the score within 10-15 days?! But I heard mail can be a complete nightmare in USA......

Thank you for your kind reply. I am really lost .....

I believe many schools have opted to receive scores from ETS in electronic format. I don't think an early December testing would be cutting it too close.

Also, just to give you a sense of where you are in relation to the applicant pool, MIT/WHOI's Joint Program website gives these statistics for admitted applicants in 2010: Verbal: 640 (88%); Quantitative: 750 (84%); Analytical/Writing: 5.0 (68%). I do not know what subfield of the earth sciences you are interested in, but those schools you listed are generally very competitive for many subfields (especially UCSD, MIT & Columbia). Also, I would not assume UCSC and UCSD have similar admissions criteria; Scripps is much more oceanography-oriented, and the cultural aspects seem to be different as well (just from what I've heard, take my advice with a few grains of salt).

Hey! Thanks very much for you guys advices. I got really upset after the exam - since I got pretty high grades when I did my practise tests +700 V and +750Q. When the results came out I was more than shocked...guess I did too much "paper" practise and not used to the CAT system. Also did my exam at 8:30 am in the morning - so I woke up at abt 4:00 am for some last minutes revision! Bad strategy I guess. So do you guys think I will be able to fit in my deadlines if I take it on 1 Dec then (which is the earliest date I can take, since I took one exam already in Nov...?)

One last question, will taking retake hurt my application for the Ivy schools (MIT, Columbia)? Does any body know whether they will take the best score out of the two or what?

Many thanks

Just to clarify, MIT is not an Ivy League school. The Ivy League is nothing more than a sports association of eight East Coast universities; the label has little-to-nothing to do with their research capacities.

Good luck, fellow applicant. Keep us updated.

waddle

[lokerice]

I am in a similar situation as you. I am also applying to earth science Ph.D. programs. I know that for at least some of those schools (ie Columbia, and Chicago, probably MIT) will probably want higher scores then that. I know that Chicago says that they would like to see top 15% of both the Quant and Verbal, although their acceptance rates seem to say that they are a bit flexable about that on the verbal section, but in order to to that I think you need to have strong aspects in other parts of your applications. I would say take it again (I am going to be as well to get my quant up), but do you think you could take it sooner? Are you also applying for funding? I know some of those schools have earlier deadlines for the funding applications.....

Thanks for all of you guys support. Feel much better now actually - decided I am going to take the test again (I don't exactly come from a rich family - the fee is a absolutely killer for me, but talked to my mum and she think if my PhD application really mean everything to me then I really ought to give it JUST ONE MORE GO).

Kitkat: Good to know somebody applying to earth science as well. What university you applying? I was thinking to apply for 7-8 universities before, but now I think really should apply for more schools (like+10) and more at a low ranking as well. Not too sure what university exactly fall into that category? I mean I check the US university ranking, but sometime their research qualities have little to do with the ranking (So a low-tier uni can still give u a hard time during application because they think they are brillant in their research field etc).

And for your question: I wish I can take it earlier! But I did mine last one on 2/11 so according to your guys and ETS, "one every month" then the earliest date ETS will me to do it again will be 1/12

And for the funding part: Again I also wish I can apply for funding like NSF, Hertz etc - but almost all the funding I've looking for are all eligible to US citizen only (I am a British-Asian = does that word even exiist, anyway you got the idea ). So the only "funding" I hoping to get it the fellowship, or TA or RA from the university...And yes, unfortunately Texes at Austin is one of them: they have fellowship deadline on 1/12 - so now I have to forgo my application for Texas....sign*

How's ur situation anyway? What's ur score? When are you going to do it again? Which university you apply to? (sorry so many questions)

Edited November 3, 2010 by lokerice

[lokerice]

Hey By the way, Do you guys know where I can get some CAT practise? I only got the PowerPrep one... THANKS XXX

Edited November 3, 2010 by lokerice

[Kitkat]

Kitkat: Good to know somebody applying to earth science as well. What university you applying? I was thinking to apply for 7-8 universities before, but now I think really should apply for more schools (like+10) and more at a low ranking as well. Not too sure what university exactly fall into that category? I mean I check the US university ranking, but sometime their research qualities have little to do with the ranking (So a low-tier uni can still give u a hard time during application because they think they are brillant in their research field etc).

I am looking at places like Columbia, Yale, U Texas at Austin, U Chicago, and a handful of lower ranked schools, including a backup of doing an MA at CUNY (which is where I am now) with the hope of being able to apply again in the future with a strong app if necessary.

And for the funding part: Again I also wish I can apply for funding like NSF, Hertz etc - but almost all the funding I've looking for are all eligible to US citizen only (I am a British-Asian =

does that word even exiist, anyway you got the idea ). So the only "funding" I hoping to get it the fellowship, or TA or RA from the university...And yes, unfortunately Texes at Austin is one of them: they have fellowship deadline on 1/12 - so now I have to forgo my application for Texas....sign*

That was what I was wondering about. Most of the support I know about comes from the schools themselves in the form of fellowships, TAs or RAs, and generally they want you to apply earlier if you need them. I know that Columbia does it at the same time as their general application so it is not a huge issue for them. Do any of the schools you are looking at say that they help international students in anyway to get extra funding?

How's ur situation anyway? What's ur score? When are you going to do it again?

My GRE came out to a 1310, which broke down into a V640, Q670, A4.5. I am not really happy with the Q score, especially seeing some of the statistics of some of the ave accepted students. But I am probably not going to be taking it again till next summer since I am not applying until next year. (I am getting prepared very early)